World Nuclear Association Blog

With the average age of European Union (EU) nuclear
plants now at around 30 years, bringing enough new capacity online
to match that lost through the closure of old nuclear plants will
present a major challenge, writes Stephen Tarlton.

Currently, 131 nuclear power reactors with a combined capacity
of around 122 GWe operate in 14 EU member states. This accounts for
over one-quarter of the electricity generated across all of the
EU's 28 member states. Half of the EU's nuclear electricity is
produced in only one country, namely France.

But with the French government planning to cap nuclear capacity
at its current level of around 63 GWe, along with the
politically-motivated decisions by two member states (Germany and
Belgium) to exit nuclear power over the next decade, a decline in
EU capacity up to around 2030 is all but inevitable.

In order to reverse this expected short-term decline, the new
generation of nuclear reactor designs needs to be firmly
established in the EU. Today, nuclear plant construction is
underway in only three EU member states - Finland, France and
Slovakia (although the reactors under construction in Slovakia are
Russian VVER-440 units, a design that is unlikely to be built
again). Beyond these units, the countries that are most likely to
have additional new nuclear units in operation by 2030 are Finland,
Hungary, Lithuania and the United Kingdom. Though less likely,
further new units by 2030 might also be seen in Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and
Sweden.

According to a new report titled New Nuclear in Europe - 2030
Outlook by the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the outcome of the
nuclear projects in these 13 countries - but especially the two
EPRs currently under construction in Finland and France, along with
the planned new reactors in Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and the
United Kingdom - will determine whether the expected short-term
decline in the EU's nuclear industry will be reversed.

A fascinating brochure has been published outlining the story of the Onagawa nuclear power plant and how it withstood the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. It is available here.

The report reviews the differences between what happened at Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima Daini and Onagawa.

Onagawa faced a stronger earthquake and tsunami of similar height to Fukushima Daiichi, at around 13m. The earthquake disrupted external power supplies, but with a combination of one remaining external power line and six of the eight diesel generators the plants shut down and cooling systems started as planned - in fact Unit 2 was in the process of starting up as the earthquake struck and reached cold shutdown a few minutes later.

When the tsunami struck the damage caused to Onagawa was much less severe than at Fukushima Daiichi and Daini, because the Onagawa plant had been built at a height of 14.8m, higher than the tsunami waves. There was some disruption to unit 2 cooling, but all reactors achieved cold shutdown as planned.

The preparedness and efforts of staff at Onagawa were recognised when they were presented with a WANO (World Association of Nuclear Excellence) Award for Nuclear Excellence.

Perhaps even more remarkable is how the Onagawa nuclear plant became a place of refuge for people from the area surrounding the plant, where many had died, and even more had been made homeless.

On March 11, 1,500 people working at the site were stranded, without any reports how their friends and family outside the plant had fared. From the devastated surrounding area 50 people sought shelter at the plant. Eventually the site would become a refuge for 364 people from the local community.

Local refugees offered shelter in Onagawa gymnasium

The article shows how robust nuclear power plants are when back up power supplies and flood defences are properly in place. Since the accident at Fukushima 'stress tests' have been carried out at reactors around the world to ensure that plants are sufficiently prepared. Even at Onagawa defences have been strengthened even more.

WNA has published a new report reviewing over twenty studies of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation. The report concludes that the third party studies clearly show that greenhouse gas emissions from all forms of fossil fuel generation are an order of magnitude higher than those from nuclear energy and renewables.

Although there are variations between studies of the emissions associated with different forms of generation, by taking a mean value the following conclusions can be made:

Greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear power plants are among the lowest of any electricity generation method and on a lifecycle basis are comparable to wind, hydro-electricity and biomass.

Lifecycle emissions of natural gas generation are 15 times greater then nuclear.

Lifecycle emissions of coal generation are 30 times greater then nuclear.

There is strong agreement in the published studies on life cycle GHG intensities for each generation method.

The studies chosen used a range of assumptions, however they all took the approach of studying the full lifecycle emissions from all the generation types, not only those emissions directly associated with generation.

The WNA report also looks at differences between the conclusions of studies carried out by academia, government and industry. Although there were some variations, particularly in estimates of emissions from natural gas, overall there is a high degree of agreement between these three groups.

Many countries that currently do not have any operating nuclear power reactors are seriously considering a nuclear power program. Published in September 2011, this WNA special report outlines the particular set of political, economic and security of supply considerations that each of the main aspiring nuclear nations faces. Online shop

Nuclear Market in India

India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power program that is expected to grow from today’s capacity of some 4,400 MWe to 20,000 MWe by 2020. The opportunities and challenges facing India’s civil nuclear power industry are presented in this WNA special report.Online shop